Low Winter Sun's Mark Strong Sets Up New AMC Drama: It Is Like A Greek Tragedy

August 11, 2013 09:26 PM EDT

“Breaking Bad” returns to TV tonight and fans may want to stay on the AMC dial afterward for the premiere of the network’s newest dark drama – “Low Winter Sun.”

The series stars Mark Strong (who fronted the British two-part TV movie for the UK’s Channel 4 several years ago), and “The Walking Dead’s” Lennie James as Detroit detectives Frank Agnew and Joe Geddes, who take a wrong turn before the first commercial break.

“Within 10 minutes, these two guys, the first guys you meet are murdering a third guy and that’s it. You’re off and running,” Mark told Access Hollywood of the show’s quick start. “It’s not a whodunit. People who might wonder whether it’s a cop show, I want to disabuse them of that notion straight away. The framework [is] they’re cops, but it’s got nothing really to do with that. It’s about people struggling against the odds. They commit this murder and rather in the way of a Greek tragedy, I suppose. … Most of the Greek tragedies center around an event and the fallout from that event, and that’s exactly what happens here. These two guys kill this other guy and then you have the season which is how they and the people around them deal with that.”

Mark said coming back to do the story once again, set in a new city (Detroit over Edinburgh), and for a new audience, was an easy sell to get him on board.

“Having done the original UK version, seven or eight years ago, to get another crack at it is the creative choice that I wanted to make,” Mark told Access. “You never get a chance as an actor to revisit that.”

Setting the gritty drama in Detroit was also intriguing for the actor, who wanted to sink his teeth into a meaty, American-set role.

“Detroit is a city that everybody had very heavy preconceptions about and the more people told me I didn’t want to go there, the more I kind of did want to go there. I wanted to check it out,” he said. “And also, it’s just really cool. I mean, playing a Detroit cop? I’m a school boy from England really. That’s really cool to do and as an actor you want to play stuff that is as far removed from yourself as you possibly can, or I do. I come from the theater, it’s about transformation, it’s about being different and I thought it was something that was great to have a go at.”

“Low Winter Sun” premieres tonight at 10/9c on AMC.

-- Jolie Lash

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